Thoughts, ponderings, opinions and occasional rants and screeds on a myriad of topics that pertain to the South and South Carolina - our liberty and the dream for the Republic our forefathers envisioned.

Thursday, June 10, 2004

Latin American Interventions by Yankee Imperialist

For anyone that tends to get caught up in the "neo-conic" - my country right or wrong mentality, it is important to consider history occasionally.

So many of us that are true patriots are often very susceptible to jingoistic emotional upswellings. We ought to let our principles rule over our emotions at times like that.

Do we really believe that anyone else has the right to tell us what to do? Do we really think we ought to go around telling others what to do? Is it not plausible to assume that just maybe if we left other people alone and let them live the way that they want just like what we want for ourselves that we might have an easier time in the world?

I am certainly not a "blame America first" sort of guy that is so often found on the crazed left. They have an agenda. I have principles. One of my principles is simply that I wish to live free and I have no desire to deny that right to others. I wish to live free from the threat of a bully government, restrictive laws and the free from the threat of other nations threatening our freedom. It just does not seem unreasonable that we ought to consider the Golden Rule and apply it to International Affairs.

Here is a sample of Yankee Imperialism visited on just one continent. The same has occurred all over the world in one form or anotherÂ and continues apace now.

Why does the World hate the US and wish to blow up the symbols of Yankee Mercantilism? A history of meddling, invading and interference is just one reason why.
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History of U.S. intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean

1823: The Monroe Doctrine declares Latin America to be in the United States "sphere of influence."

1846: The U.S. provokes war with Mexico and acquires half of its territory, including Texas and California.

1855: U.S. adventurer William Walker invades Nicaragua with a private army, declares himself president, and rules for 2 years.

1898: The U.S. declares war on Spain and as a result annexes Guam, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Hawaii.

1901 : With the Platt Amendment, the U.S. declares its unilateral right to intervene in Cuban affairs.

1903: The U.S. encourages Panama's independence from Colombia in order to acquire the Panama Canal rights.

1905: The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine declares the U.S. to be the policeman of the Caribbean; the Dominican Republic is placed under a customs receivership.

1912 : U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua and occupy the country almost continuously until 1933.

1914: Mexican refusal to salute the U.S. flag provokes the shelling of Veracruz by a U.S. battleship and the seizure of parts of the city by U.S. Marines.

1933: U.S. Marines finally leave Nicaragua, but are replaced by a well-trained and well-armed National Guard under the control of Anastasio Somoza.

1954: The CIA engineers the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Guatemala; 30 years of military dictatorship, repression, and violence follow.

1961 : The U.S. attempts to overthrow the revolutionary Cuban government at the Bay of Pigs.